Cub'htmting and After 



unfortunately, is not studied so sedulously in some 

 countries as formerly. 



I would now give you a run as told by two old- 

 time authorities — Beckford's, the hunting run, and 

 Nimrod's, the riding one. There is nothing cruel 

 or unsatisfactory about Beckford's, while Nimrod's 

 run breathes of desperate demands upon the gener- 

 ous exertions of the horse. Scores of other pens 

 have since told us of the ^^ image of war" in the 

 hunting-field. Beckford's ideas were written well 

 over a hundred years ago, and Nimrod's about 

 eighty. For broad and bold generalism they are 

 ^^ first class." 



Beckford's ''Thoughts on Hunting," written in 

 his Dorsetshire country, will ever hold its own, 

 though the ''moving incidents by flood and field" 

 are perhaps best depicted by Nimrod. The meet 

 is perforce an old-time one. 



" The hour most favourable to the diversion," 

 says Beckford, "is certainly an early one; nor do 

 I think I can fix it better than to say the hounds 

 should be at the covert side at sun-rising." " Let 

 us indulge ourselves with a fine morning in the 

 first week of February," writes Nimrod, "and at 

 least two hundred well-mounted men by the covert 

 side. Time being called \cBt. 1845] — say, 11. 15, 

 nearly our great-grandfather's dinner-hour — the 

 hounds approach the furze brake, or the gorse, as 



it is called." 



93 



